Business efficiency, automation and AI
Purdy helps businesses automate manual work, improve inefficient processes and build practical AI solutions that save time and reduce costs.
Most teams lose whole days each month to work that could be simplified, standardised or automated. These are the problems I am usually asked to solve:
What I do
Three straightforward ways to work together. Every project starts with the problem, not the technology.
For teams whose spreadsheets have grown beyond what they were built for, and now break, disagree or take too long.
For repetitive administrative work that follows the same steps every time and does not need a person to do it.
For businesses that know something is inefficient but need an outside view to find where the time actually goes.
For businesses where one person holds a critical process in their head, and nobody else could run it next week.
The process
A short, low-risk process with no long consultancy engagement.
A short conversation about the task, the files involved and how much time it takes today.
I look at the actual work, not a theoretical version of it, and confirm what can be improved.
A tool, spreadsheet, report or automated workflow your team can use without specialist knowledge.
You keep the solution, with clear documentation so it does not depend on one person.
About
I am a Production Manager with 22 years of experience at Immediate Media, formerly BBC Magazines.
I negotiate three major supplier contracts each year with a combined annual spend of approximately £6 million.
My experience includes supplier management, budgeting, contract negotiation, data analysis, sustainability reporting, AI implementation, workflow automation, process improvement and project management.
I have built multiple AI tools and automated numerous manual business processes.
Anonymised examples of work delivered. Results are described in terms businesses recognise, not figures I cannot evidence.
An AI-assisted invoice processing system that extracts key financial information from supplier invoices, validates it and prepares structured accounting data.
Result
An automated reconciliation process comparing supplier usage, pricing and contractual agreements across multiple data sources.
Result
Automated reporting tools that calculate production emissions and compare environmental performance across suppliers and production sites.
Result
An AI-powered knowledge system that lets teams retrieve operational information, documentation and business rules quickly.
Result
Workflows that convert complex PDF documents into structured Excel and JSON datasets.
Result
Automated repetitive reporting, spreadsheet processing and validation tasks that were previously completed by hand.
Result
Dashboards combining operational, commercial and supplier data into clear business reporting.
Result
Worked with business users to identify manual tasks suitable for automation, then built practical AI solutions to improve efficiency.
Result
In detail
Four examples of operational processes I have reviewed, documented and improved. Clients are anonymised and figures are only quoted where they can be evidenced.
Magazine publishing
The highest-margin weekly title in the portfolio had no written process. Print quantities, paper reservations and production deadlines all sat in one person's head, so holiday or illness became a genuine commercial risk.
What I did
Result
Print production
Annual paper contracts covering several million pounds of spend were tracked across separate spreadsheets, emails and supplier statements. Comparing agreed rates against actual usage took days of manual checking.
What I did
Result
Supply chain
Paper availability varies by grade, mill and lead time. Contingency stock was managed reactively, which risked either production delays or capital tied up in unused reels.
What I did
Result
Sustainability
Emissions reporting for production was rebuilt by hand each period from supplier data in inconsistent formats, which made year-on-year comparison unreliable.
What I did
Result
If your problem sounds like one of these, it is worth a conversation.
Being clear about this usually saves everyone time.
Starting prices
Clear starting prices so you know roughly where a project begins.
A review of an existing spreadsheet with a written list of risks and fixes.
From £95
Repair broken files, clean data, or reconcile invoices, usage and costs.
From £195
A repeatable report or dashboard built from your existing data sources.
From £295
A review of a workflow with practical recommendations you can act on.
From £395
Larger automation or AI tool builds, quoted once the scope is clear.
Price agreed after consultation
Final pricing depends on the complexity, quality and volume of the source data.
Get in touch
Send a few details and I will reply with an honest view of whether I can help, and what it would involve.
